Brainy Quote of the Day

Monday, July 18, 2016

A New Migration...

It's been a breathtaking seven days that puts into context what a president has to do: gather information, calm fears for now the second police shooting - the first generated by Alton Sterling and Philando Castile's executions; a terrorist attack by truck in Nice, France in the backdrop of two political conventions poised to pick this president's successor in a volatile world. This election will be a reflection of our fears and our character, beyond our own self-deluding mythology, who we really are.

Some context: "The Great Migration" was of approximately six million African Americans from the rural south to northern cities for opportunities in the budding industrial revolution and (hopefully) AWAY from the De Jure and De Facto segregation, Jim Crow and racial terrorism they were all fleeing. Notable ex-patriots: The ancestors of First Lady Michelle Obama (documented in "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson); James Lee Boggs, deceased husband of Grace Lee Boggs and author of "The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook," in which he predicted the impacts of automation and what he referred to at the time "cybernation" that we recognize as the advent of computers in what were once jobs done by humans and less robotics or apps.

Note the plot synopsis from "Parable of the Sower" written by Octavia Butler in 1993:

Set in a future where government has all but collapsed, Parable of the Sower centers on a young woman named Lauren Olamina who possesses what Butler dubbed hyperempathy – the ability to feel the perceived pain and other sensations of others – who develops a benign philosophical and religious system during her childhood in the remnants of a gated community in Los Angeles. Civil society has reverted to relative anarchy due to resource scarcity and poverty. When the community's security is compromised, her home is destroyed and her family murdered. She travels north with some survivors to try to start a community where her religion, called Earthseed, can grow.Wikipedia

Now look at the plot of the US as it relates to a heating climate (I'm sure the same applies overseas as well):

The previous migration was a drive for opportunity and fairness; the next one will be for the first level of Maslow's hierarchy: comfort. The strain on resources will split humanity along tribal and factional lines like never before. Those who "have" will hoard and build up walled cities; defended castles to maintain their bounty from the hungered herds of "have not's." For those youth that will still be around (I'm not anticipating I will), as 2050 approaches they will see how far we've actually migrated...from the caves.

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Laid off in 2003 at 41 (Logan's Run?). Blogged about it and published a book called "Unemployed: A Memoir." After trying a lot of things, I've decided that science could use one more nerd type. I will complete my graduate studies in physics concentration: microelectronics/nanoengineering - now back in the semiconductor industry - and teach at the post secondary level at the end of my career in science.